Full Recovery a Long Way Off Say Most Americans

A full recovery in the US housing market won’t happen for at least another three years, or maybe even longer, say 54% of Americans surveyed by Trulia and Realty Trac last year.

Most Americans think housing markets are on a long, slow road to recovery. Courtesy of Scudd

The survey, which was designed to evaluate American’s attitudes to real estate, home ownership and the foreclosure crisis, was a great deal more pessimistic than a similar survey in November last year, which showed that 42% of Americans expected a recovery by around 2012.

These more recent results from last month’s poll show that the number of people hoping for a strong recovery by next year has dropped considerably, to just 23%, with the vast majority not seeing a big turnaround until much later on.

“As our survey shows, most Americans seem to have overestimated the chances of a speedy recovery in the US housing market. Probably due to optimism more than anything else, but now the reality is it looks as if the recovery is going to be a long, very gradual thing,” explained Trulia’s CEO Pete Flint.

“If you look at the most recent drop in property values, it seems fairly certain that the rest of this year is going to be a fairly volatile one for the market.”

“On the flipside however, even if the prices continue to drop a little bit more, it’s fairly certain that mortgage rates aren’t going to remain this low forever, and so now is still a great time to buy.”

Trulia. Courtesy of Bub.blicio.us

Backing up Flint’s claims is the fact that, according to the latest data from Trulia, home ownership is more affordable than paying rent in almost 80% of America’s cities.

Interestingly enough, the survey also showed that most respondents are interested in buying in the near future. More than 56% of renters and 47% of those who own their homes said they are “quite likely” to buy in the next 12 months, what with so many temptingly low-priced foreclosed homes available.

Of those who said they are looking to buy, the vast majority of them estimated they would be able to buy a foreclosed home for about 40% less than a home that was sold on the market normally.